Financial Times, Dec 29, 2011

choi

There is no need to read any of the reports or articles.

(1) Leslie hook, labour Unrest Sweeps China; LG Display hit by worker militancy; Nervousness grows within government.

Quote:

"'The so-called cheap labour model has created a lot of problems and is not working anymore,' said Kirk Yang, managing director at Barclays Capital. 'The mentality [of workers] has changed a lot. Five or 10 years ago those guys were just lucky to find a job because there was an over supply of labour. But now it is the opposite. There is a labour shortage, so the workers have more bargaining power.

"At the LG Display factory in Nanjing, a main point of contention was the one-month year-end bonus workers were offered, much less than the three or four months' pay they received last year.

"Online forums and Chinese news reports said the original one-month bonus offer [LG later increased to two-month pay] was a fraction of what workers in South Korea were paid, although the office clerk [unnamed, whose nationality was not identified] said those reports were exaggerated.

"LG Display said it was attempting to explain to its chinese workers the impact of falling profits. the group reported a record net loss for the third quarter this year owing to poor sales amid a deteriorating economic climate.

(2) Richard Haass, Why a Tremulous China's Greatest Threat Is International
(paragraph 1: "I have been travelling to China for more than three decades, but never have I encountered a Chinese leadership so uncertain of the country's future. It is little exaggeration to say that the world's most populous country is on its heels. The irony is inescable: political leaders in the US and Asia are busy debating how best to meet what they see as the threat from China; political leaders in China are debating how best to meet the many threats they perceive to China. Most of the threats the Chinese see to their country come from within.

Note:
(a)introduction at the end of the op-ed: "The writer is president of the Council of Foreign Relations.
(b) One notable bit in the article: "(when I was in Beijing recently it was possible to see only a few hundred metres and all but impossible to breathe)."

(3) Emiko Tarazono, US Shells Out Record for Peanuts As Drought Hits.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/339268 ... a-00144feabdc0.html

Quote:

"Peanuts no longer cost peanuts. * * * Prices in 2011 have almost tripled in the US, while in Europe, the largest importer, they are up 60 per cent as the global peanut industry, worth about $18.5bn a year, is hit by lower supplies in India, the second-largest producer, Argentina, a leading exporter, and the US.

"Traders expect peanut prices to remain high for the next few months.

"In Georgia, the acreage for production is expected to rise as the fall in cotton prices drives farmers back to peanuts. However, in Texas, the second largest peanut producing state in the US, some are forecasting that the hot dry weather could last until 2013.

"China, the world’s largest producer, has had a good crop, producing about 7 per cent more than the annual average, and has been filling the gap.